And we should remember that Jesus did not use the word FATHER when speaking about God because it is a metaphor for human fathers. God’s fatherhood is not the metaphor, human fathers are the metaphor for God. God was and is the first FATHER after which all fathers take their example. When we pray to God the Father, we pray to One Who is the way a Father is supposed to be; no matter what our own fathers were like.
Ephesians 3:l4 says, "I fall on my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its name." God is not made in our image; we are made in His Image. .
And so First, Jesus taught us to say FATHER in order to help us think clearly about who God is
To call God Father means He is a person; the divine Person. He is the Spiritual Person. This doesn’t mean He has a body but it means He has all the characteristics of personhood.
He thinks and feels and desires, and loves and cares, and is interested and concerned about us.
That should eliminate Deism, which says that God created everything and them left us on our own.
Because Jesus called God Father, in that one word He eliminated four other major heresies about God.
If God is a personal Father; then he is ONE; thus eliminating Polytheism (many gods).
If God is a personal Father; then we cannot believe in Pantheism which says there are impersonal gods everywhere.
If He is Father; then it eliminates Agnostocism which says that we can’t be sure if there is a God. But if He is a Father and we have the experience of being His children by spiritual birth, there is no doubt that God exists. The word FATHER eliminates Atheism because God who is a personal Father implies a Presence, a Reality, an Existing ONE. So God as OUR FATHER eliminates the errors about God. That’s one powerful reason alone why Jesus asked us to call God FATHER.
If you doubt that the Name Father is a standard which preserves the truth about who God is, just examine what is happening in those denominations which have eliminated the word FATHER from their preaching and liturgy. You see an increasing tendency toward doctrinal eroor and confusion.
When we are inaccurate about WHO GOD IS; doctrine, morality, liturgy, confession of faith and spiritual life are all profoundly effected.
The second reason why Jesus taught us to say FATHER is because the Name FATHER defines our relationship to God.
When we call God FATHER, we are acknowledging the correct relationship between God and ourselves.
God is our Father because He is the Life-Giver, the Creator, the initiator; and we are formed in His image
. The word FATHER reminds us that God brought everything (and us) into existence; and that it is His character as a good Father to sustain, provide, preserve and protect what He has created. We can expect that of our Father God.
It also reminds us that in that relationship with God as a FATHER, we are children. No matter how old we are, we are still children of God. We have been made His spiritual children -if we are born again- and that we are therefore in a dependent and expectant and trusting relationship with Him all our lives. Little children seem to know this and elderly people seem to know this.
Thirdly, For Jesus, God Who is a Father also meant that God is interested in us uniquely, specifically and individually. We are not anonymous creations. He does not lump us all together and treat us all alike. But He does treat us all fairly and justly and lovingly.
Jesus taught us that we are worth more than many sparrows and that the hairs of our heads are numbered by God, and that there is joy in heaven over one saved person, and that when a prodigal child returns to his or her Father; the Father runs to greet him and puts the finest robe on him and throws a party.
As your Father, God knows you thoroughly and deeply. He knows the real you. He knows your sins and temptations, your trials and difficulties, your aspirations and inspirations, your beginning and your end.
The Fourth reason why Jesus wants you and I to call God FATHER is because God wants a natural relationship with us. Call it an informal rather than a formal relationship.
Jesus taught us that God does not want lengthy prayers. God already knows what you have need of. He wants your heart more than your head. He wants your love more than your duty. He wants your prayers more than your sacrifices. He wants you to worship Him in spirit and in truth. He is less interested in you following a law out of legalism, than you following Him out of love.
And love of our FATHER God means that we are part of His family of love. A loving family fellowship with other men and women. We have become one in God’s Kingdom. He has removed all the barriers and differences.
In Galatians 3:28 it says "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
Under one Father and in one family, all the differences-other than doctrinal and moral ones are removed.
Neither is God male or female. To argue over God’s gender, and insist on calling him mother or something feminine is foolishness and demonstrates a lack of real understanding of the Scriptures. It’s looking at God and making Him conform to our pet politics and agendas.
The fact is, God transcends and includes both genders, all classes, all cultures. We call God Father because He instructed us to call Him FATHER . We do not have the license or freedom to call Him something neuter or something feminine like Mother. This is not an issue of male supremacy or chauvinism or paternalism. It is an issue of the authority of Scripture as the inspired and revered Word of God as God gave it to us. Who should know better who He is and what He should be called than God Himself.
The fifth reason Jesus taught us to call God FATHER is because FATHER means authority. Some women and many liberals especially have a great deal of trouble with this characteristic of God’s Fatherhood. But the trouble is not with God who never abuses authority and who respects all people alike. Jesus had a profound respect for women and their dignity. The trouble with God’s authority for some is because the way the patriarchal church and fathers have mistakenly treated both men and women historically.
God as FATHER, just as a good human father, exercises both authority and love. A human father who is only authoritarian without love is not a good father. A father who is only loving without exercising authority and discipline and limits and boundaries is not a good father either.
People who make God only authoritarian are ultra-conservative extremists on one side; and those who make Him only loving, are ultra-liberal extremists on the other. Authority without love and love without authority are both false notions of God. God is both authoritative and loving.
And lastly; the sixth reason why Jesus taught us to view God as FATHER and to call Him FATHER, and pray to God as FATHER is reserved for those who have His Spirit; the Spirit of His Son Jesus Christ.
It is such a personal term, that it wasn’t enough to even say the word FATHER, but a more affectionate and intimate term; ABBA!
ABBA! as you know, means daddy, papa, dad. It is a name of great endearment and affection and love. And when one uses it, it is not said easily or casually. In fact, it is not simply said; it is cried out.
I really understood why Jesus taught us to speak and cry out to God with the word Father one day, whn a friend of mine came to see me after his father died.
For weeks after his father died, he was troubled and disturbed and hurt about his father. His father’s death had left him with a number of unsettled feelings. He was getting very depressed.
As we began praying about it, I felt led by the Lord to tell him to get in his car where he could have privacy, and take a long ride. And as he was driving, that he speak to his father out loud, and say whatever came to mind.
He did what I suggested and later he told me that when he began speaking to his father he became so emotional that he had to pull the car to the side of the road. And for l5 or 20 minutes he spoke the word he used as a child with his father, the word "Papa", and he just cried deeply. After that, his depression lifted and he had a peace and a deep joy about his father and himself.
In that one word "PAPA" he had stored all his feeling and his whole relationship toward his dad.
We are separated from God. We are separated from the One in whose image we are made. God doesn’t want us to try to form images of Him; so Jesus gave us a word "ABBA, FATHER". He knew that if we grow to speak that Word with love and affection and longing, we would be drawn into deep spiritual communion with God.
He knew that when we say "Abba Father" we would be drawn close in Spirit to God, until the day when we are spiritually transformed, and can see Him Who is Spirit; and Who is our Spiritual Father, face to face.
• Our Lord tells us that God knows what we need before we ever ask and that all we must do is make the attempt to ask politely for it.
•We are told to call God Father because, while He is the holy and almighty God, through Christ and His covenant promise and fulfillment He has revealed Himself as our loving, forgiving and compassionate Father.
•He is not just some impersonal cosmic watch-maker who winds up the universe and then watches it run down.
•He is not the impersonal Force that we want to have behind us as we play with science fiction flash lights.
•He is the trustworthy and compassionate God who created us for love, life and redemption. He is the God who cares so much about His creations that He gave His Only Son in sacrifice so we might also be called His children.
•This is Christ's own promise to us. He knows His Father well and promises us that God will "give us bread and not a snake" in the same way a human father would care for his children, only better. At the very beginning of our prayer Christ wants to kindle in us what is basic to our prayer -- the childlike awe and trust that God through Christ has become our Father. Our fathers do not refuse us the things of this life; and God our Father will even less refuse to give us what we ask in faith.
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